DORTMUND, Germany – Sound designer Joerg Gruensfelder, who used KLANG:kontroller and :konductor for productions at Theatre Dortmund including Sweeney Todd for the 2024/25 opera season, credited the monitoring system’s intuitive interface and ease of use.
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Explaining how an essential piece of equipment works can take time and even detract from the creative process it is trying to facilitate. For theatrical sound designer Joerg Gruensfelder, explaining sound system components was an unnecessary distraction and often felt like too much information for musical directors or stage directors who just wanted to get on with the process. Thanks to the intuitive interface of KLANG, complex conversations around orchestral monitoring are a thing of the past. Now, when a musical director puts on their headphones, they do not need an explanation, they can just get on with the job.
Joerg Gruensfelder is the sound designer for Sweeney Todd, part of the Theatre Dortmund 2024/25 opera season. The show has a large ensemble and orchestra, it is mixed on the DiGiCo SD7T console, with over 190 microphones being used for the cast and musicians. The power of KLANG’s interface and its instantly recognizable benefits has meant that Gruensfelder has worked exclusively with KLANG:kontroller and :konductor across a wide range of projects for the last two years.
During that time, he has noticed how quickly musicians and the creative team understand the interface, making lengthy discussions and training sessions a thing of the past. The entire orchestra for Sweeney Todd is using KLANG immersive mixes, giving the complex, Stephen Sondheim composed musical score the space it needs to be fully heard and comprehended by the musicians. As Gruensfelder explains, using KLANG has also successfully bridged the gap between artistic creativity and technical detail.
“With KLANG, when you hand headphones to a conductor or director, they put them on, and it instantly makes sense,” he says. “We can try to explain immersive mixes and describe the technology, but for my creatives, it’s too much information. They are artists and musicians, they don’t want to think about what happens after the microphones, they just want to create.”
The simplicity of KLANG’s interface ensures that once musical directors and conductors hear how KLANG works, they are very happy to adopt it for their monitor mixes and those of the entire band or orchestra. It is one of the tools at his disposal that Gruensfelder truly appreciates, not just because of the ease of use for musicians, but also because of the effect that correctly spaced sound has on the end users.
“When I have used different in-ear monitoring solutions, they have made the musicians tired and hearing fatigue sets in, meaning their ears shut down, so they can’t hear what they are doing,” he explains. “Gradually, their volume creeps up and by the end of the show, it could have doubled. With KLANG, the tiredness doesn’t happen, so the levels stay the same. This is the only system I know that really reduces hearing fatigue.”
His KLANG:konductor has 16 immersive in-ear mixes, more than enough for the whole orchestra, and if there are any variations, it is simple to send additional signals separately, direct from the console.
“The whole orchestra is on KLANG mixes,” he says. “The musicians can be sent their mixes directly from the SD7T and, if they need an element separately, such as the flute, we can send that to them too. It’s the flexibility that we need to make sure the musicians can work well.”
Gruensfelder does not just work in theatre and opera, he works across a range of audio applications, from training and workshops to TV and studio sound and KLANG comes with him to every location, because of the power, stability and flexibility it offers in every situation. Part of the joy of having dynamic tools available in an artistic setting is the option to experiment and being a piano player first means that his imaginative spirit is always looking for ways to play and build on the knowledge he already has.
“KLANG has been revolutionary for my monitoring”, he says. “It’s mind-opening for me: if you use the best tools your ideas flow more freely and ideas are what we live for. I approach setting up KLANG in this way too, my musicians create their own way through to make technology, art and music work together and KLANG is the easiest way to find this flow.”
Another key benefit that Gruensfelder appreciates is the KLANG offline editor. It is a tool, that enables him to completely, reliably pre-program his complex shows at home in his studio. He simply transfers the information onto a USB stick and adds it directly into the theatre console. He has found remote access really useful, too, as he can look at the shows once he has left and fault find if needed.
“With multiple teams working on my shows, it is important to have an easy way to interrogate faults,” he says. “With a few technical additions of my own, I can easily connect my console, access my theatre system and help identify issues, without having to be physically in the theatre. It’s very useful.”
Using KLANG allows Gruensfelder the freedom to experiment and work, without considering the equipment at all. It is the perfect bridge between creative freedom and technical facilitation and for him, there is no better way to ensure the happiness of the whole company, whether they perform in Opera, theatre or for live broadcast, than with KLANG, as he concludes.
“My knowledge and understanding of what is required for musicians to perform at their best and produce a beautiful sounding show is built up from years of experience. For me, KLANG is the one tool that is seamless. Musicians use it once and it is clear for them.”
